


The softening sound of the night

by Lumeha



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Soft Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Soft Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22604116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumeha/pseuds/Lumeha
Summary: It had become some sort of a ritual. Felix, coming to the royal office, the flickering light of the candle illuminating the empty corridor. Dimitri, at his desk, fast asleep, too tired to even realize it.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48
Collections: Project Sworn





	The softening sound of the night

**Author's Note:**

> Here is my other work for [Project SWORN](https://twitter.com/ProjectSworn) ! 
> 
> This piece was brainstormed with and illustrated by [Juju](https://twitter.com/bidisasters), and if you want to retweet her illustrations, [go do it](https://twitter.com/bidisasters/status/1225884899208417281) ! And check her and her art out too !

Felix stood in front of the King’s office with a scowl, wax dripping at the bottom of the candleholder in his hand. In the flickering light, the shadows were darker, deeper, echoing in the silent hallway. Even Dedue had been dismissed, but he had known better than to leave Dimitri alone with the weight of the world on his shoulder. 

With a push of the shoulder, the door opened to a room only illuminated by the fire burning in the hearth. The office was a lived in room, with the royal cloak thrown at the back of a chair, plates and small crumbs of food here and there on the table near the fireplace. One of Felix’s coat was on it, too, the fabric carefully stretched in a hoop, with thread and needle laying next to it. 

Dimitri was sitting at his desk, chin in one hand and quill in the other. Softly snoring. He was still dressed in his armor, from the audience with the lords in the early afternoon. How he could sleep with the metal of his gauntlet biting into his flesh was a complete mystery that Felix never solved and never would. 

“Dimitri.”

No reaction. Not even the most subtle movement of the eye. The king was more tired than he expected, Felix mused while approaching the desk. Not surprising, considering the stacks of papers he was surrounded by, and the too many meetings he had during the day. He was better at letting his friends help him with his work, and they were better at taking it from his hands when he was running himself into the ground. And yet. 

Yet. 

“Dimitri”, he repeated, louder. He raised his hand and pushed strands of hair behind Dimitri’s ear, with the same reverence he showed to a beautifully crafted sword (with a tenderness he showed only when no one was watching, only the beast, the man who had taken his heart so many years ago). The other man answered with a muffled noise, eye still closed. “Your Beastliness, you are supposed to sleep in a bed, you idiot.” 

_  
Illustration by [Juju](https://twitter.com/bidisasters) _

“Felix…?”

His voice was hoarse and low, and it made warmth bloom in Felix’s chest. He rubbed at Dimitri’s cheek, just under his blind eye, and the other man leaned heavily in his palm. 

“Who else, boar.”

Dimitri slowly blinked himself awake, as if coming back from a too comfortable dream that he never wanted to leave. Felix knew better - knew that, left at his desk, Dimitri would soon thrash himself awake, taken by nightmares pressing down his chest and cutting his throat and breath. He had caught him at the right time, just before the shadows clawed themselves out of the exhaustion fueled sleep. 

“What time…?”

“Late. Get up. You need to go to bed.”

Dimitri blinked once more and slowly rose to his feet, unsteady and almost sending the desk’s chair tumbling to the floor. Felix gathered the royal cloak in his arms, fur and fabric still warm from the dying fire of the hearth, and waited for the other to come with him. 

“We both need the sleep.”

Only a smile, broke by a long and silent yawn, answered him, and Felix tightened the cloak against his chest to fight against his sudden want to grab the man and kiss him. 

Silent and empty corridors echoed with their slow steps, until the entrance to the royal apartments. The night guard gave them a respectful nod and opened the door for them, unsurprised by the late appearance of their king and his right hand man. 

Dimitri stood at the center of the bedroom, eye half closed and hair still mussed and tangled from his nap at his desk. Felix took the time to look at him, still too aware and awake himself. Since the end of the war, they had both worked on their shortcomings, their issues, ad the many ways they could hurt each others in small ways. They had learnt to live together, as they were now : two adults with too much hanging between their hands, with too many shades threaded through their bodies and badly scarred wounds in their minds. But the Dimitri he was seeing, right now, struggling to stay awake and upright, with a smile brighter than the cold Faerghus sun, was a Dimitri he was seeing more and more.

He dropped the cloak at its usual place and turned to Dimitri, holding out a hand.

"Give me your arm."

Dimitri blinked. Blinked once again, reminding Felix of the sleepy dogs he sometimes saw Dedue and Ashe feed at the academy. He then raised his hand and nestled it in Felix’s palm, with all its angles and sharp corners of metal. With movements far gentler than he ever showed in public, Felix eased the gauntlet off of Dimitri's hand. He pulled off the leather glove and unbuckled the vambraces, putting them aside and he asked for his other arm. 

  
_Illustration by[Juju](https://twitter.com/bidisasters)_

The king was pliant and soft under his touch, knowing the intricate intimate ritual as well as Felix did. For a long, long time, Dimitri had worn his armor to whatever hole or corner he could fold himself into when beat into submission by his exhaustion, ragged raw and thin by the barking beasts and ghosts floating at the edge of his consciousness. Then it was Dedue, loyal and strong Dedue, who had carried on the task to remove each plate and each scale of Dimitri's armor, the only one he could trust to do it.

Felix remembered with a stark precision the first time Dimitri had allowed him to remove the black metal, during a night not unlike this one. The first of many nights and evenings.

(a night of vulnerability and trembling hands, and of whispered confessions and clumsy hands)

When they were done with the chestplate and the shirt under it, he pushed Dimitri to sit down on the bed, and he kneeled to remove the greaves and his boots. The king's gaze was soft, and Felix could feel himself blush under the attention. It didn’t matter if he was used to it, if the other man was generous with his feelings, if... He focused his attention on his fingers, on the leather under their tips. 

“Do you need help ?” Dimitri whispered, weaving his hand through the dark hair, tugging it free of its tie. 

“No. Go and lie down.”

With a sigh, a breath soft on Felix’s skin, Dimitri folded himself and wrapped his arms around his neck. A searing kiss was left on his forehead, and then it was the cold, cold air all around him, left on the floor, alone, and yet - and yet -

Soon, he heard a soft snore rise from the bed. 

Felix smiled.


End file.
